Author: Lacey Rose, Lesley Goldberg

ABC continued a busy Tuesday ordering three dramas including a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, a steamy drama from a ER producer, a supernatural entry produced by Brad Pitt and a comedy from the Bad Teacher writers to pilot.

On the drama side, Betrayal is based on the Dutch format about an unhappily married woman who begins a torrid affair with the lawyer for a powerful family. ER‘s David Zabel will pen the pilot and executive produce the ABC Studios vehicle, with Alon Araya and Rob Golenberg exec producing.

STORY: TV Pilots 2013: The Complete Guide

For its part, Venice is described as a Romeo and Juliet-esque drama about two rival families and a forbidden and dangerous romance that emerges as they battle for control of Venice, Calif. Byron Balasco (Without a Trace, FlashForward, Detroit 187) will write and executive produce the Warner Bros. Television drama with Wunderland’s McG and Peter Johnson on board to exec produce. McG will also direct the pilot.

The Returnedlooks at what happens when the people you have mourned and buried suddenly appear on your doorstep as if not a day’s gone by? The lives of the people of Aurora are forever changed when their deceased loved ones, return…

The drama effort is penned by Criminal Minds’ Aaron Zelman, with Brillstein Entertainment and Brad Pitt‘s Plan B attached to executive produce. The hourlong project is set up at ABC Studios.

Zelman is repped by 3 Arts and Stone Meyer.

Comedy Pulling, which is based on the 2006 British series by the same name, hails from Bad Teacher scribes Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. The pair will write and executive produce the adaptation, which revolves around three dysfunctional women in their 30s living their lives the way they want, even if society tells them they should have it all figured out by this point.

Sharon Horgan — who played one of the women in the original — and Dennis Kelly, creators of the U.K. series, will exec produce the project from ABC Studios and Aaron Kaplan‘s Kapital Entertainment. ABC previously developed a U.S. iteration of Pulling during the 2008-09 development season, but the effort failed to get a series order. 

Zabel is with WME and Hansen Jacobson; Eisenberg and Stupnitsky are repped by WME and Mosaic.

The pilots join the previously announced S.H.I.E.L.D. drama and comedy effort Mixology, among others at the network.

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Peter Tolan

Fox continues its ordering spree with a pilot order for drama Rake. 

The hour-long effort will star Academy Award nominee Greg Kinnear as a brilliant but self-destructive criminal defense lawyer. The character-driven comedic drama hails from Peter Duncan (creator of the original Australian series) and is executive produced by Rescue Me‘s Peter Tolan and 2012‘s Michael Wimer. 

The project, which is based on the Australian series by the same, follows the chaotic and comedic life of criminal defense lawyer Keegan Joye (Kinnear). Brilliant, frustratingly charming, and with zero filter, Joye is one of life’s great addicts. His staggering lack of discretion and inability to self-censor land him the cases that nobody else wants, but behind that lies a resolute optimism and belief in justice that fuel his dogged determination to defend those who seem beyond redemption.

In addition to Joye’s cases within the justice system, the show follows his personal trials and tribulations, including his ongoing battle against the IRS, his mounting debt to his bookie, overlapping affairs and liaisons with women, a hormonal son, an exhausted ex-wife and the evolving relationship between his two married best friends, Ben and Scarlett. 

Rake is being produced by Sony Pictures Television, Fedora Entertainment and Essential Media & Entertainment Pty Ltd. In addition to Duncan, Tolan and Wimer, Richard Roxburgh and Ian Collie are on board as EPs. Kinnear will serve as a co-EP as well.

Kinnear, whose credits include The Kennedys, Little Miss Sunshine and an arc on Modern Family, is repped by CAA and Stone Meyer.

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Fox is betting big on Ted’s Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, offering the trio a six-episode straight to series order for their live-action comedy, Dads. The network on Tuesday handed out pilot orders to Andrew Gurland‘s House Rules, Bill Lawrence‘s I Suck at Girls adaptation, Jane Tranter‘s Friends & Family and an assistant comedy from two former Friends producers, 

MacFarlane’s Dads live-action entry comes on the heels of summer blockbuster Ted, which was co-written by the trio. Their multicamera effort centers on two successful guys in their 30s who have their lives turned upside down when their nightmare dads unexpectedly move in with them.

STORY: TV Pilots 2013: The Complete Guide

The series is set up at 20th Television, where Oscar host MacFarlane is under a lucrative overall deal that has produced such animated efforts as Family Guy and American Dad. Sulkin and Wild have been involved with Family Guy since 2005. MacFarlane, Sulkin and Wild are all repped by WME.

House Rules hails from writers Gurland (The Last Exorcism Part II) and Justin Hurwitz (FX’s The League) and revolves around a family of “Larry Davids” that has contempt for all things normal. They try their best to fit into their small Midwest town where everyone knows each other and politeness reigns.

The single-camera comedy is produced by 20th Television and Principato-Young. Gurland is repped by WME, Principato-Young and Stone Meyer; Hurwitz is with WME and Principato-Young.

For its part, To My Assistant is a single-camera comedy revolving around assistants who band together at a big New York law firm to help each other cope with the obnoxious, overbearing bosses who test their sanity on a daily basis.

Friends producers Sherry Bilsing (I Hate My Teenage Daughter, New Adventures of Old Christine) and Ellen Plummer (Veronica’s Closet) will pen the Warner Bros. Television and Lin Pictures pilot and executive produce alongside Dan Lin and Jen Gwartz. 

Cougar Town‘s Lawrence will executive produce an adaptation of S#*! My Dad Says author Justin Halpern‘s book I Suck at Girls. Halpern and his Dad Says cohort Patrick Schumacker will pen the script for the single-camera comedy from Warner Bros. Television and Doozer Productions. Jeff Ingold will exec produce. 

I Suck at Girls is described as a story about a boy becoming a man, and a man becoming a father in a time before coming of age was something you could look up on Google. 

Friends & Family, which is based on the hit BBC series Gavin & Stacey, centers on two very different lovers who meet and try to make a long distance relationship work. Friends and family prove to be both the best support and the worst nightmare. 

The half-hour, single-camera comedy counts BBC Worldwide Productions’ Tranter and Julie Gardner as executive producers alongside Baby Cow Prods.’ James Corden, Ruth Jones and Henry Normal. I Just Want My Pants Back’s David Rosen is set to write and EP the project, which is set up at Sony Pictures Television.

The pilot orders join the untitled Dan Goor/Mike Schur comedy at the network.